Steve Harvey and Texas are making me mad this morning

Her reaction? Her trying to stay calm then building up to angry tears and frustration? Exactly the emotions that played out with me. Because Maura? Maura could be that 32 yr old in church, playing with dolls, wearing bobby socks, and making weird noises. She WAS that child last Sunday. My daughter is a beautiful child of God and the last place she should feel unwanted at is in church – and the Pope would back me up on that, thank you very much.

And that mom has it right – why is it still okay to make fun of these people? These people who can’t defend themselves? Why? You didn’t need to go there Steve. You didn’t. Shame on you.

“This is our lives!” the mom says. And I get her. Oh, I get her so much. I want to just give her a big hug, because I know. I know what she’s feeling. We love our children so much. We love them so much because we know that their paths are so very hard, that they will be shunned simply for being disabled, for being different. And yet, we’d prefer the quiet shunning versus them being ridiculed publically. It is a hard life that we somehow find the joy in. We accept our children for the beautiful souls that they are. They don’t deserve to be ridiculed.

The above was brought to me as I was still reeling over another story I read out of Harris County, Texas, about a special needs student who was assaulted by his paraprofessional – the person who is supposed to be keeping him safe. And yet, because there was no “injury”, there will be no charges against this grown woman who put her hands on a child. She is on video, choking this boy, but because she didn’t actually physically injure him, there is nothing to charge her with.

But there was injury. Injury to the child, who has had trust broken. Injury to the parents, who sent their child off to school, told to trust the school, only to have their child abused and not told about it for days. The greater special needs community has been injured, because this is one of our biggest fears. No, there might not have been physical injury, but there was harm done. We’re told to trust schools, to send our children off, all will be well – and yet, these stories constantly pop up and remind us that the world is an even scarier place if you are disabled. The para-pro may have lost her job, but the family in this case lost something much more precious than a job.

This is our life. The life we choose to celebrate and live with as much joy as possible. A life where I revel in every one of my daughter’s hard-earned achievements while knowing that she’s fodder for comedians who don’t think, and that her chances of being abused are astronomically higher than the rest of society. And I will continue to be her voice, to speak out against these things, because she is totally worth it. Because Maura deserves better. We can do better people. We can do better.

The bigger Olaf came via the kindness of a stranger, that my husband met on a plane. This stranger heard Maura loved “Frozen” and gave the big Olaf to Josh to give to her.Because most of the time, people are good.

Okay, it’s been a couple days, but I had to add on to this post –

One of my readers sent me the link to what was actually said – and I quote – “…half-wit ass niece…” you can hear the woman trying to change the subject but not very well because he kept going on.

He did apologize later that day with this –

To everyone, please accept my sincerest apologies. It was not my intent to hurt any one. Sister Odell is a made up character, she’s not real and my intent was not directed at any other real person. And most certainly was not directed at any one you know. Again my apologies. The problem with comedy is ALL subjects can offend someone. Please forgive me if you were ….. DONT TRIP HE AINT THRU WIT ME YET

This is NOT a subject. This is our daughter, and our lives.

Also, someone asked why I was mad at the whole state of Texas. Let me clarify – the state’s penal laws allowed that paraprofessional to get away with what she did and that’s what I am mad about. I do love many a citizen of Texas, one of whom is Maura’s loving godmother. Who would kick Steve Harvey in the shins for us if she ever met him.

6 replies to Steve Harvey and Texas are making me mad this morning

Ok, I can understand being upset with Steve Harvey, I even sympathize. He’s a grown man & should know better. But why are you mad at the entire state of Texas? I don’t live in Harris county. I don’t even live close to Harris county so why hold the entire state responsible?

I have to agree with the comment on the news article, from what I have seem of some of the US Animal Rescue shows that my daughter watches, animals get better protection than this. This video needs to be released so we can see what they are talking about; but seriously – ‘no physical harm’, when they have got the assault there on tape! As if that is the only kind of harm. And the other issue – so simple “Walk just one day in our shoes” – think about it being your child. I have shared these articles and referenced your blog.